ABA Banking Journal - February 2008 - (Page 31)

A true-life “rags to banker” story hard, physical jobs for years. Regarding Harris, she says, “he he path that brought Dorothy Bridges to the presidency of a encouraged me to go to college and to want something more than bank, and to the chairmanship of the ABA America’s a high school diploma and a future of menial jobs.” Community Bankers Council, is one that few bankers have trod, Bridges went to the University of Montana, Missoula, on a and it has influenced her approaches and viewpoints. scholarship, graduating in 1980. At the time, she was a single Bridges grew up in the south, chiefly in New Orleans. Much of mother, and she recalls receiving much help from people for whom her childhood was spent around two family focal points. she was often one of few African-Americans they had ever met. The first was around her immediate family of eight children, She was recruited out of college as a management trainee for what herself and seven younger siblings. They lived in a large old house that had been converted into multiple units, where cousins, was then First Bank System, Minneapolis, after initially hoping just for a job as a part-time drive-through teller to earn money while aunts, and uncles lived. “Altogether, there must have been close figuring out what to do after graduation. There she met another to 50 people living in this one house,” recalls Bridges, “with only mentor, Myrtle Leuschen, head of human resources—“the first a couple of bathrooms and a shared kitchen.” woman in a management position that I’d seen.” One of those cousins was Ruby Bridges, one of the first four Bridges worked up to president of a branch. Along the way, she black students to attend a formerly all-white elementary school in did what she could to make a difference. One deal involved a New Orleans. It’s an episode of late 1960 that Norman Rockwell local couple whom other immortalized in a famous banks had turned down for a painting for Look magazine, loan to start a coffee shop. of six-year-old Ruby. Little She was impressed with Dorothy Bridges was one of their plan, and worked with a somewhat larger group of the Small Business black students who followed Administration. Today that Ruby the next year, when “coffee shop” is Caribou they became of age. Later, Coffee, second-largest spethe banker served on the cialty coffee company in the board of a foundation that U.S. Ruby Bridges Hall started to In 1993 she became a combat racism. compliance consultant for The second focal point Barefoot Marrinan & was summers with siblings Associates, Inc., and from and cousins, spent as free 1995-1999, vice-president labor for her grandparents, This child in Norman Rockwell’s The Problem We All Live With is Ruby and chief credit officer for sharecroppers in rural Bridges, Dorothy’s cousin. A year later, Dorothy started in the same school. Community Reinvestment Tylertown, Miss., which is Fund, Inc., which joins lenders and investors. In 1999, she returned where Dorothy Bridges was born. to banks as Franklin CEO and president. While much of her childhood was happy, Bridges spent a good deal of it poor beyond the imagination of most people today. Toys African-Americans in banking were scarce. Bridges and her female cousins would make dolls Bridges is a big believer in community banking. This goes back to using corn silk, lipstick, and pop bottles. experiences when banking was not part of her parents’ life. They found alternatives to banks, “sometimes with really terrible results.” Following opportunity northward At the time the Franklin National opportunity came up, Bridges In her speeches, Bridges often tells stories of these years, not as did not see herself returning to a bank. “There is still a sense a “sob story,” but to illustrate how banks can reach out. that minorities have to prove that they can think like bankers,” Her parents worked at manual-labor jobs that paid poorly. says Bridges. She says there are many businesses where minority “We didn’t have a lot of money,” Bridges recalls, “and what we employees don’t feel that way, “so, many of us choose to leave.” did have, we didn’t keep in a bank. It wasn’t that we had anyHowever, she found that the views of Bill Reiling, chairman of thing against banks. It’s just that we didn’t know anything about $478.1 million-assets Sunrise Community Banks, which owns them. In the communities where I grew up, banks were nonexisFranklin and two other area banks, fitted perfectly with her own tent. I cannot remember ever even passing a bank within a fiveviews of what banking was about. This commonality of views mile radius of my home.” overcame her concerns. There were other rough times, but Bridges persevered. Among “I went back into banking with the belief that this would be a the mentors she has had in her life was her mother, Gertrude, and way to combine my banking skills with my community relationship a high-school math teacher, Alloyd Harris. Her mother inspired skills,” says Bridges. — Steve Cocheo her through her example, raising eight children while working T LICENSED BY NORMAN ROCKWELL LICENSING, NILES, IL ABA BANKING JOURNAL/FEBRUARY 2008 31 http://www.crfusa.com http://www.crfusa.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ABA Banking Journal - February 2008

ABA Banking Journal - February 2008 Contents On ABABJ.COM: Have You Visited Our Brand-New Website? Editor's Column "That's Edutainment" Snapshot: Tier 1 Ratios Stable so Far 100th Anniversary: Then and Now ABA Resources ABA Chairman's Position Don't Despair Pass the Aspirin Cover Story: Socially Responsible Banking Profitably - Incoming America's Community Bankers Council Chairwoman, Dorothy Bridges Demonstrates the Way A True "Rags-to-Banker" Story Retail Banking: On the Money Hunt Community Bank Management: The Ugly Truth About Board Relations Does Core Really Matter? Security 2.0: Not Just a New Kettle of Phish A Personal Case of Mal-Serendipity DOD Credit Regs Demand Attention Mailbox Banker's Mart To Advertise/Index of Advertisers The Economy

ABA Banking Journal - February 2008

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